Our Budget Greenhouse

Our Greenhouse is finished!! YAY!

It’s been a LOT of work, but I’m so glad to have it finally done. Thanks to my handy husband. We already have tomatoes, zucchini & squash planted inside.

The process:

My sweetheart built the grow boxes out of pallets, then the girls and I painted it with some leftovers from last year’s remodel projects.

We filled them half way with lava rock from our yard that the previous owner had landscaped with (yuck) Then we lined it using this: https://amzn.to/3VUOVSD

Then we put cardboard boxes in the middle, added some yard clean up (pine needles & pine cones). Next we topped it with some top soil and good manure filled soil from our fields. (they used to be cow pastures)

Once the boxes were filled, we put this greenhouse on top of them: https://amzn.to/3BcFsfI

We mounted the greenhouse about half way up the pallets to give it extra height.

So far so good! We’re LOVING it! Next is to set up a drip line inside and a few finishing touches.

The Cost:

Months ago I was able to get a truck load of pallets all the same size for $3/pallet. You CAN get pallets for free often, but there’s no guarantee they will be the same size and since we were using them for this project it was worth paying $3 each to have them all the same size and good quality.

The paint was all discounted (“oops paint” when the store mixes the wrong color) paints that we had purchased last Summer when doing remodels on the house. We pulled out what paints we had and used up what was left in the cans.

We purchased the liner and greenhouse frame from Amazon (see links below)

The lava rocks were something we had on our property from the previous owners landscaping. We can’t stand the lava rock, so using it in the garden boxes not only worked as a filler, but it will provide good drainage, and best of all- you wont be able to see them! So we’ll no longer have the ugly lava rocks in our yard!

The fill dirt and top soil we used from our property. Luckily we have a good friend with a tractor that let us barrow it for a few days to fill the garden boxes- otherwise it would have taken a lot of time and labor to shovel it all in!

Cost Breakdown:

• Pallets= $90
• Paint= free (leftovers from a previous project)
• Rock/dirt fill= free from the property
• Liner= $70 (plus we have enough for more garden beds)
• Green house= $190

Making this green house grand total cost: $350 (plus a lot of work)

Here’s some pictures of the process.